Earlier this week I unpacked a suitcase saturated with the smell of campfire, and bits and pieces of dried mud fell onto the floor; leftover signs of summer camp, carried with me a thousand-plus miles from El Capitan Canyon in southern California where I attended a 4-day, 3-night, photo-nerd sleepover camp called Photo Field Trip last weekend.

To sum up my experience in words presents a great challenge. The setting was idyllic – canvas-walled tents, cozy cabins, yurts, camouflage tree bark, meandering dirt paths – "glamping," they call it. I can't truly express the inspiration I got from classes with amazing and long-admired photographers such as Kendrick Brinson and David Walter Banks, Leela Cyd, Anna Naphtali,Michael O'Neal and Paul Octavious, all who shared their unique take on capturing a still image. Not to mention the 300+ incredibly creative folk that surrounded me, including one of my photography soul sisters, Greta Rybus. We shared, we laughed, we talked, we learned, we clicked, we soaked it allllll in as much as we could.....including the rain that sprinkled upon us most of the weekend.

I left the experience feeling simultaneously overwhelmed and inspired – Ideas bursting at the seams of my brain, anxiously awaiting to be implemented! This experience was just what my soul needed in order continue growing as a photographer and to challenge and stretch my creativity. I'm pretty sure Field Trip was a huge success. Until next year, #yeahfieldtrip!